Melbourne man’s chilling discovery in Melbourne Apple store

Simon Edwards made an appointment at his local Apple store after noticing some odd things on his iPhone – what he was told left him stunned.

Melbourne man Simon Edwards, 44, had noticed some odd things happening on his iPhone and laptop, so booked an appointment at his local Apple store to see if they could help.

His original appointment, towards the end of 2019, was inconclusive, but six months later, a technician came back to him with a chilling finding – his phone was part of a family sharing plan that he knew nothing about.

“You’re the child and there’s a parent,” the Apple employee said.

This gave the ‘parent’ the ability to monitor his actions and block him from using certain apps on his phone through parental controls.

“Hang on a second, I’m a single man, how is this happening?” Mr Edwards told news.com.au.

It was the beginning of “two years of absolute hell,” for Mr Edwards, after malware infected his phone and spread to all his devices.

He lost $9500, nearly lost another $10,000, and the hack was so severe that his smart TV, his security cameras and even his car were taken over by cyber criminals.

Mr Edwards has had to quit his job and move in with his parents in regional NSW to focus his attention on removing the hackers from his systems.

However, two years later, he has been unable to shake the online virus — and suspects it came from someone he met on a dating app.

“This has completely ruined my life,” Mr Edwards said.

Stream your news live & on demand with Flash. From CNN International, Al Jazeera, Sky News, BBC World, CNBC & more. New to Flash? Try 14 days free now >

Simon Edwards made a chilling discovery in a Melbourne Apple store. Picture: Getty

His credit cards, his Afterpay, Uber and all his social media accounts, as well as his tax return were stolen by the hackers.

He suspects somebody is constantly monitoring his screens and his keystrokes using spyware and is certain that all his personal details have been shared on the dark web.

“Every shred of personal data is gone. I can’t change my date of birth,” he said. “I can’t claw back what’s happened. I have to live with it.

“I’ve always been the person to think the best of people but it’s changed how I view everyone around me. It just takes one person with bad intentions to wreak so much havoc.”

How the nightmare started

The alarm bells started ringing at the end of 2019, when Mr Edwards started noticing some strange things on his phone and laptop.

Legitimate websites were suddenly plagued with pop-ups, emails wouldn’t send when they said they had, and his screens would constantly jump and shake.

He receives dozens of scam calls a week.

The apps on his phone would ‘grey out’ and become unusable. It got to a point where he had to factory reset his phone every two hours.

His smart TV, car and security cameras were all connected to his phone through bluetooth. Some apps would also disappear and his security cameras have unexplained gaps in their feeds.

Every time he sends an email a Pegasus spyware warning appears. Screen mirroring is constantly turned on for his phone and laptop, remotely streaming to an unknown person.

Going for the money

During the same time, he noticed something odd happening to his finances.

His social media accounts fell to hackers and he had to cancel his credit card after someone starting racking up debt in his name.

To date, he’s had to cancel his credit card four times in two years.

The bank had to recover around $8,000 in fraudulent spending on his credit card, Afterpay and Uber accounts. A further $1500 was spent through his Apple ID.

Then a fraudulent tax agent added themselves to Mr Edwards’ ATO account, changing years worth of taxlodgings and trying to intercept a $10,000 tax return.

Mr Edwards’ information has most likely been shared on the dark web.

Apple gave a total of $300 in compensation and they are currently still working with him to resolve his issues.

He has also made a report with the authorities. NSW Police confirmed to news.com.au they had received his victim statement.

The identity theft is so extreme that Mr Edwards received a Commonwealth Victims Certificate to show to government agencies and financial institutions to help manage his situation.

Legal documents seen by news.com.au show that a NSW Magistrate’s court issued him with the certificate on November 24 last year.

“The Commonwealth victims’ certificates may be helpful if you are a victim of a Commonwealth identity crime and the theft is causing you problems in your business or personal affairs,” according to the Department of Home Affairs.

He has moved to country NSW in a bid for a fresh start.

Mr Edwards has been left scratching his head about how the cyber attack occurred in the first place.

At first he thought a work computer he inherited after being promoted had malware in it which then spread to his personal devices.

However, his workplace has emphatically denied those claims.

They hired an independent third party IT contractor who found no signs of a cyber breach on any of their work devices, in reports shown to news.com.au.

Instead, he now suspect his phone was infected via a dating app.

He suspects the hack began through an ex-partner.

Mr Edwards quit his job in April last year because he felt crippled and unable to do anything with this cyber threat hanging over his head.

He also left Victoria and moved back in with his mother.

“I moved here [regional NSW] nearly a year ago from Melbourne trying to escape this cyber hell, it’s actually just followed me here,” he said.

“I’ve done every different common sense thing you can think of, new phone, new email address, new SIM card, new credit card number, where there’s no carry over.”

The problem has persisted.

He estimates he’s spent about $10,000 on professional IT help and to buy new devices, including analog TVs to stop the hackers in their tracks.

“For me this is very targeted. This is something that is really vindictive,” he added.

More than 5.3 million Australians experienced cybercrime in the last 12 months.

Australians spent a whopping 27 million hours trying to resolve the issue at an average of 5.1 hours for each Australian, according to the 2022 Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report.

Have a similar story? Continue the conversation | [e-mail]